A new innovation I’ve done at the gym is what Cindy coined a “squat walk”. Basically the general gist is that you just rack a very heavy weight, your attempt on racket, walk back a few steps, and then re-rack it.

Why?

The first question is consider, what is the point of doing this? My practical thought is that it is fun, interesting, and thrilling. Certainly just being able to even hold a very heavy weight on your shoulders is a quite transformative experience.

For example, my first iteration of this was doing what I called “micro squats” which was just put a very very heavy weight on your shoulders, step back a few steps, and then just squat down half a centimeter. And then put back the weight.

How low do you really need to go?

When it comes to weightlifting, it seems that there is this bias that with the squat, one must squat all the way down, at parallel, a little bit below parallel, or maybe a little bit above parallel. But why?

My first thought is that I think it has to do with competition. If you are getting a bunch of dudes in a room, and trying to figure out who is the strongest, do you need some sort of standardized rules and judges. It seems at least in powerlifting, the “rule“ is that your hips or knees or whatever must be at “parallel“. But who judges this? The judges. However, I am certain when you get a bunch of beefy dudes trying to squat over 1000 pounds, everyone’s definition of “parallel“ is different.

Is the goal to just get stronger, or to maximize your leg muscular growth?

Currently speaking, my thighs are out of control. I think I might have the beefiest thighs out of any dudes I’ve seen at the gym. My thighs are so buff I could even jiggle them on command. Kind of how bodybuilders on TV do the pec or the boob jiggle.

The first thing; muscular growth. My thighs are getting insanely buff, from even doing this “squat walk. Or micro squats.